Make Your Wedding Special with Unique Wedding Flowers

When couples come to us for their wedding flowers they may have very different ideas about colours, themes and styles, but they all, without exception, have one thing in common. They want their wedding to feel special and unique to them – and they want their flower arrangements to be highly distinctive and original.

At Tolly's Flowers, this is exactly what we provide for our customers – a highly personalised service to create something completely different for your special day. Pictured here are examples of the unique and beautiful wedding flowers we have designed for some of our clients.

Unique Wedding Bouquets

To us, the bride's bouquet is one of the most important aspects of wedding flowers, since it is carried by the bride both before and after the ceremony, making it a very personal item. As well as being stunning in its own right, a bouquet has to work as an accessory to the bride's outfit. In addition, we also bear in mind that it will appear in most, if not all, the wedding photos.

There are many ways to achieve a distinctive look, while still keeping to the basic ‘posy’ design, including colour combination, innovative use of foliage and use of unusual flower species.

In the example above, our designers created a stunning mixed bouquet in pastel colours. We used a mix of English country flowers enhanced with greenery and tied together very simply, to avoid detracting from the colour scheme. The beautiful arrangement and the sheer profusion of flowers makes this an eye-catching and unforgettable bouquet.

You don't have to choose unusual colours or species to achieve a stunning bouquet.

In the picture above, the bride wanted a very simple white bouquet to go with a classic cut wedding dress. We chose jasmine flowers, using a mixture of pale green buds and full white blooms to create a striking effect. Adding large splayed leaves around the base was the final creative touch needed to turn this classic bouquet into something exceptional.

Unique Wedding Table Arrangements

Designing table centrepieces that will be both visually impressive and small enough to occupy a table, is virtually an art form in itself. But it's an art form that our designers particularly enjoy.

As well as the choice of flowers, we have access to a huge variety of vases and accessories to create interesting effects, depending on the overall atmosphere the couple is looking for.

In the above arrangement, a clear round vase on a mirrored base is filled with cream and orange roses, and takes up very little space on the table top. By using relatively few flowers, but a lot of creativity, including the use of metal wiring and seashells, we were able to achieve a highly original display.

Want something more modern? Here we have combined the simplest of flowers – cream roses – with sculptural flower holders, to create an effect which wouldn't look out of place in a modern art gallery.

We hope we've inspired you with the sheer variety of designs that we are capable of creating. So, if you have been wondering how to achieve wedding flowers which are both beautiful and unique, please give us a call – we'll be happy to help turn your dreams into reality.

Unique Wedding Flowers East Anglia – Click here to find out more about what we can offer.

Beautiful Buttonholes

When you are thinking about wedding flowers for your Essex, Suffolk or Norfolk nuptials it's all too easy to focus on the bride's bouquet and the table arrangements. But just as important to the overall theme for your wedding are buttonholes for the groom and important gentleman guests including best man, fathers, page boys and ushers.

Buttonholes for gentlemen are far more than simply decorative, however – they are also highly symbolic. In medieval times, a gentleman would wear his lady's "colours" (often adopted from her family's coat of arms) over his heart on the left side of his chest, as a sign of his loyalty and affection. And it is believed that this may be why buttonholes are worn on the left lapel nowadays.

Just as a bride's bouquet has its origins in the carrying of symbolic plants (such as wheat or barley for fertility, herbs to ward off evil spirits, and so on) a groom's buttonhole is believed to have served a similar function, and is perhaps why wedding buttonholes have several elements to them, usually involving some non-floral elements such as foliage, rather than consisting of a single bloom.

With all this tradition and meaning behind them it's worth putting some significant thought into the design of your buttonholes. At Tolly's we are known for our attention to every last detail, so you'd expect us to put just as much care into the design of a buttonhole as to the bride's bouquet. In fact, we design bouquet, buttonholes and corsages together, to ensure that they all work harmoniously to achieve a unified theme.

To illustrate, we have hand-picked a selection of beautiful buttonholes and corsages that we have previously designed for couples in East Anglia, to give you just a taste of what's possible and to inspire you.

Pink

These elegant pink rose buttonholes and corsage look stunning with a pink and white themed wedding flowers display, and turn heads when attached to the lapel of a grey or black tux or suit. In this set, you see the use of some gypsophila which was used in the bride's bouquet and which helps to add something special. The design also features a bow of navy blue ribbon, to tie in with the colours used elsewhere in the wedding design, as well as creating a more masculine feel. Meanwhile, the corsage (bottom right) features some smaller and paler pink blooms, for a more feminine effect, while still maintaining a strong overall colour scheme.

Red

Red roses symbolise romance, as well as a being a popular choice for modern weddings. Teamed with cream or white, as in this example, it can also convey patriotic overtones, appropriate for a traditional English wedding.

Here, the red is used as a stunning contrast to the cream used for bridesmaids posies – but unity is maintained by using a similar shape and size of roses throughout. 

Orange and Yellow

Orange and yellow are exuberant colours – perfect for a celebration such as a wedding. These buttonholes and matching bouquet look stunning at a spring or autumn event and add a touch of brightness to your wedding attire. Here we have used a mid-green foliage which really makes those yellows and oranges pop for extra impact. 

Traditional White and Cream

If you’re looking for something more traditional and modest for your corsages and buttonholes, white or cream roses are ideal for the occasion. The challenge here is to achieve a look which is understated but not bland. Our designers have dressed these simple cream roses – a single, large rose for the groom and a cluster of smaller roses for the corsage – with deep green ivy for some dramatic contrast. These buttonholes look fabulous for any traditional, simple or countryside wedding.

Designed to match the theme of your wedding, buttonholes and corsages can be crafted from a huge selection of flowers and can be made to any specification. Alternatively, tell us the colour scheme you have in mind, and the overall atmosphere you are hoping to achieve, and let us propose a design for you.

Wedding Flowers Essex – click here to see some other examples of our work.

Choosing Wedding Flowers

Choosing wedding flowers is an important part of planning a wedding. Flowers make your wedding day special and unique to you. Wedding flowers are the perfect way to signify love, trust, beauty and romance. Brides can work with the wedding florist to choose flowers for every aspect of their special day.

If you are looking for wedding flowers in Suffolk then Tolly's Flowers, based in Newmarket, are an esteemed wedding florist. We specialise in all types of wedding flowers including the bride’s bouquet, bridesmaid’s flowers, buttonholes and corsages.

When you choose Tolly’s Flowers as your wedding florist we can create floral arrangements that show your unique signature and style on your wedding day. When we plan your wedding flowers with you we aim to complement your chosen colours and reflect the bride and groom’s personality.

In this article we look at the bride's bouquet, bridesmaids flowers and buttonholes and corsages – including the history and traditions of these important accessories and guidance on choosing these for your special day.

Wedding Flowers  – click here for full information on our wedding services.

Bridal Bouquets

The bridal bouquet is undoubtedly the most important of your wedding flowers. This floral arrangement is the one you can guarantee everybody will be talking about. The bridal bouquet needs to complement the dress, the style of the wedding and the bride’s personality.

The bridal bouquet is steeped in tradition. In ancient times they didn’t contain flowers but strong scented herbs and spices, which were believed to ward off evil spirits and symbolised fidelity. These herbs were sometimes tucked under the bride’s veil rather than being carried as a bouquet. In Tudor England, brides carried marigolds doused in rosewater and ate them when the ceremony had finished as an aphrodisiac!

Later flowers were made part of the wedding ceremony as a symbol of fertility and the first bouquets were made from orange blossom. Orange blossom is now the world's most used wedding flower and mainly popular in Spain, where the tradition is it represents happiness and fulfillment. This is because the orange tree flowers and bears fruit all at the same time.

The tradition of throwing the bridal bouquet stems from England. Female wedding guests used to reach to tear the brides dress and flowers to have her good luck rub off on them. To avoid this the bride would toss her bouquet to the women and run away. In Victorian times, the bride would toss her bouquet to a friend as she left the reception to keep them safe and to pass on good fortune.

Today the bouquet is tossed to unmarried ladies in the belief that whoever catches it will marry next.

Bridal bouquets used to only consist of white flowers as a sign of purity. However today many colours of wedding flowers are available to complement the bride's and bridesmaids' dresses and the overall colour scheme of the wedding.

There is a large range of classic and contemporary shapes of bouquet for you to choose from too. Tolly’s Flowers will advise you on the flowers best suited to your preferred bouquet style. Whether you want contemporary or traditional wedding flowers, your bouquet can be a fully wired shower or a simple hand-tied posy designed just for you.

The most popular designs are trailing waterfall or a long cascading bouquet, which suit taller brides in long, more traditional gowns. Small, bouquets like a hand tied round posy or a bouquet that lies across the arm are better for shorter brides in knee length dresses. Simple single blooms are best for more ornate styles regardless of your height.

However traditional rules don’t have to followed leaving a bride to turn her own ideas into a unique bridal bouquet with the help of a wedding florist, making the possibilities limitless.


Bridesmaids Flowers

The tradition of having bridesmaids as part of the bridal party is many centuries old. As bridesmaids were dressed the same as the bride they were there to fool evil spirits and protect the bride from anything bad happening. Today the bride will choose a colour scheme for the bridesmaids dresses and flowers to complement her own.

Bridesmaid bouquets are often simpler than the bridal bouquet for example a hand tied posy, pomander or for younger bridesmaids a basket arrangement. Gerbera, roses and sweet peas are popular flowers for bridesmaids.


Button Holes and Corsages

The groom’s buttonhole flower is usually one that is present in the bride's bouquet. This tradition dates back from when knights would wear his lady's colours in the form of a handkerchief or ”favour” to show his affection. In some cultures the groom will throw his buttonhole over his shoulder to single male guests in the same manner as the bride throwing her bouquet.

Don’t forget to include buttonholes for the best man, ushers, fathers and grandfathers. These are often a luxurious style buttonhole to co-ordinate with the groom and the colour scheme of the wedding flowers.

We also supply beautiful wedding corsages for important female family members like mothers, aunts and grandmothers.

Buttonholes for the congregation can link the theme of your chosen wedding flowers with your wedding guests. For wedding guests we suggest that you select single stem buttonholes.

Wedding Flowers – click here for full information on our wedding services.

Next month we will look at choosing flowers for churches / ceremony and reception venues and decorating wedding cars.